Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Double Feature: Countess Dracula (1971) and Vampire Lovers (1970)

Yes, ladies and gents, is a double feature with one of Hammer's most fetching leading ladies, Ingrid Pitt.  And given the films involved, I should have called it a "double-D feature."

Our first feature is Countess Dracula, so named because nobody except die-hard horror fans would go see something called Countess Bathory.  Although the countess's last name here is Nodosheen, this is really the story of Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian noblewoman who is accused of murdering young women and bathing in their blood to retain her youth and beauty.  The film opens with the middle-aged countess attending her husband's funeral with her long-time lover Captain Dobi.  Everything seems fine until an attractive (at least, I assume he is attractive with the way everyone is throwing themselves at him) young man shows up.  Apparently he is the son of a friend of the late count and has been remembered in the will.

As the countess contemplates her ability to seduce the young man, she berates her serving girl for peeling an orange incorrectly.  The girl cuts herself with her knife and some of the blood splashes on the countess.  When the blood is wiped away, the countess's skin is firm and radiant.  The next morning, the serving girl has gone missing but the countess's daughter Ilona has arrived back home.  Ilona and the young man quickly plan to marry and the countess will have the perfect life as long as she can keep from reverting back to an old hag at the most inopportune times.

The second film of the pair is The Vampire Lovers, is the first of many adaptations of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla.  The lesbian undertones in the novella are brought to the forefront in the film as Ingrid Pitt works her way through the noble houses of the countryside and their nubile young daughters.  Peter Cushing appears at the opening of the film to invite Marcilla to stay at his estate with his young daughter.  Unfortunately, the daughter quickly falls ill and dies, leaving Cushing to ride away until he is needed later.  But Marcilla, now called Carmilla, is involved in a carriage accident and is left at the home of another gentleman with a lovely daughter (and a governess!).  This daughter becomes ill as well and when the servants try to intervene Carmilla seduces them all.

Thank goodness Peter Cushing is able to reappear to help the new victim's father, as well as a few other intrepid souls, discover the real menace: Mircalla Karnstein.  The Karnsteins were an entire family of vampires who were thought extinct.  Looks like they forgot one, and after Mircalla returns to her coffin Cushing destroys her by driving a stake through her diaphragm (I'm sure this was supposed to be her heart, but Cushing seems to have forgotten his previous experience and aimed too low) and cutting off her head.

While the ladies of both films, including Pitt, are lovely, they seem to be presented as just another set piece in the film.  Living up to Hammer's reputation there is female nudity in both but it seems almost modest by today's standards.  And the fact that each film prominently displays the bare breasts of a corpse give the viewer a rather uneasy feeling.  Countess Dracula does dare to go all the way by offering a full-frontal shot of Pitt (in the guise of Ilona, not the warty hag she becomes) which I'm sure was heady stuff at the time but would only be of interest to any tween boy who hasn't yet discovered the internet (not that Pitt isn't beautiful or anything, but in today's surgically enhanced world she looks so...normal).

The photography and costumes are quite rich and lush, but that's about all that's going for the films.  If you are a Hammer or Ingrid Pitt die-hard, you've probably already seen them.  If you want a great lesbian vampire movie go for Daughters of Darkness, and if you want Dracula or actual gore go for anything else.

Ratings:
   Countess Dracula: ★★
   The Vampire Lovers: ★★

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